The research I have done and compiled for you here has taught me a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to instituting a composting program. A successful city-based program needs one crucial feature that many lack: government support. In fact, in all three of the cities I studied the composting initiatives were government run. Support for composting in these areas may have started as grassroots movements, but only really took off and became effective after the city itself decided to step in and change laws. San Francisco’s program, for example, which I think is the most effective, forces its residents to compost. It is a revolutionary idea that a government would force its people to do something purely for the good of the earth, but that is how it works best in this case because if people had the option, many would still not compost and the system would not be as effective. The same is true with the schools I studied as well. Despite Davis’s success at composting, the fact that students are involved so heavily makes the program less effective. The truth is that students can be lazy, so when they are not in charge of separating their food waste the programs become much more efficient. I do believe, however, that composting programs at schools, unlike in cities, must start with the students. A group of interested students, like the ones in Project Compost at Davis, have to get together, teach their peers why composting is important, and then get the administration’s support. All of the progress must seem to be coming from the student groups or else other students could see the composting rules as unfair inconveniences imposed on them by their school. With this knowledge about other cities and schools, I feel as though I can provide realistic and effective recommendations in regards to starting composting programs in Providence and at Brown. Providence:Providence, Rhode Island is on the East Coast of the United States and sits on the Providence River, which feeds into the Narragansett Bay. Its population as of 2006 was approximately 175,000 people and it sits on 18 square miles of land (11.1). Since Providence is located at the head of a major water source it is imperative that they cut down on the amount of waste they put in their landfills and stop using chemical fertilizers, both of which can leak harmful fluids into nearby water sources. Composting would do both of these things. The other reason that Providence should begin a composting program is because Rhode Island is 10% farmland (11.2). Since Providence is Rhode Island’s biggest city the amount of organic fertilizer they could produce by composting could have a myriad of benefits. From saving the city money on landfill use, to making it cheaper for farmers to grow their food, to simply reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of the state, a composting program would have countless positive results.Before any effective system is instituted in Providence, though, a lot of problems have to be addressed. Currently, Providence’s recycling and yard waste is processed through a company called the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (11.3). They do a good job of traditional recycling and take yard waste as well, but they do not currently have the infrastructure to process food waste. What Providence needs to do is start a movement to pressure RIRRC to expand its facilities to include the composting of food waste with its plant waste. Although we are in tight economic times, the government would be doing a lot if they were to give RIRRC money, in some form, to help them start this program. Another way to fund it could be through national sustainability grants, but I am not sure how easy it would be for a company like RIRRC to get one.Another major problem that Providence faces in trying to start a composting program is their yard waste collection schedule. Currently yard waste in Providence is picked up every other week between mid-April to mid-December and is very strict about the amount and form of the yard waste being collected (11). If RIRRC decided to accept food waste with yard waste, as it is done most effectively in the cities I studied, the pick up schedules would have to be more frequent and less restrictive. This would mean the city would need to invest more money in its Department of Public Works, but seeing how much money other cities saved in landfill and fertilizer costs, Providence could end up making a profit.The last problem that Providence could have is participation. The median household income in the city, as of 2008, was $36,426 (11.4) and the unemployment rate is 11.4% (11.5). Compared to the cities I studied, these numbers are considerably lower. Because of this, many Providence residents may not have the time or energy to focus on separating their food waste, so the city needs to make it really easy for them to do so. Adopting San Francisco’s method of giving out the smaller kitchen bins, in addition to their yard waste bins would be extremely helpful in Providence. Also, the city would need to promote the composting initiative a lot in order to convince their residents that it is worthwhile. These options, however, would cost the city more money, albeit not a ridiculous amount, but when you’re dealing with a budget, everything counts. Greg Gerritt, Rhode Island’s Environment Council administrator and the Green Party candidate for Providence’s 2002 mayoral election (11.6), has been working hard to get a citywide composting program in Providence in the past few years, so I asked him what he thought the system should look like. Not surprisingly, his vision was pretty much exactly what the other cities I studied have done. According to Gerritt, Providence’s new mayor, David Cicilline, supports doing some sort of composting in the city, so he has been working with him to get that accomplished. If Gerritt can keep up his work with the mayor and even get a group of citizens together to work with him, he may be able to overcome all of the problems I just listed and get a comprehensive composting program in Providence. I would suggest, however, that he does not shoot for the end goal all at once, but take it slow, maybe first expanding the yard waste pick up and then working on RIRRC. A composting program seems very possible in Providence, we just need people to support it and be willing to work slowly, with the city, towards their goals.Brown:Brown University is a liberal arts school located in Providence, Rhode Island. With approximately 5,900 undergraduates living on campus, the college takes up about 143 acres (16). As of now there are a few areas on campus that have small compost capabilities, but these are all separate entities and no significant, school wide system has been created. When it comes to getting a composting program at Brown, though, I am optimistic, largely because the movement has already started. I am a part of a group on campus called SCRAP, which stands for Students for Composting to Rejuvenate Agriculture in Providence. The main goal of this group is to work on getting individual students to compost in their rooms and put pressure on Dining Services to separate food scraps in the dining halls. The reason the group is focusing mainly on individual composting is because Dining Services has its own Sustainability Interns that are already working on getting the dining halls to compost. According to Lily Mirviss, one of the Sustainability Interns and leader of SCRAP, one of the problems there is finding a way to make composting financially beneficial for the school. Because Brown does not have farm land at their disposal, like the Evergreen and Davis, and does not have the money to build their own composting facility, like Middlebury did, we would have nowhere to put the huge amounts of compost that the school could generate. Until a proper place for all of Brown’s compost is found or until the school agrees to pay for an Earth Tub, a giant machine that can process 40-150 pounds of biomass per day (click here to see!), I think that SCRAP is right in focusing its efforts on the students. SCRAP’s plan, as of now, is similar to what other schools have done, but on a much smaller scale. SCRAP applied for a school grant that will give them enough money to buy a tumbler. A tumbler is a small, stationary container, which you can throw certain food scraps in, to create compost. How it works is pretty simple, basically every time you have something you want to compost you put it in the tumbler, add an equal amount of plant matter, and spin it a few times. The spinning is the most important part because it allows oxygen to enter what is essentially a smaller version of the compost piles used at other schools, and mixes the organic waste all at the same time. In between the spinning the compost material is still, generating the heat and pressure necessary for decomposition. To learn more about the tumbler, click here. It is very low-tech version of the industrialized composting systems the cities and colleges I studied were using, and it takes longer to make good compost, but works and is only part of SCRAP’s plan. Once they have the tumbler, SCRAP is planning on putting it outside of Machado House on the campus’s northwestern corner. Machado house asked for the tumbler and said that its residents would gladly compost if they had the opportunity, so SCRAP will be providing one for them. In addition to the tumbler, the group is going to use some of the grant money to buy small bins that they will then sell to students who want to compost. Any student who buys a bin will have access to the tumbler at Machado House or will have the opportunity to get their food waste picked up by SCRAP’s volunteers and taken to the tumbler for them. The group is going to focus its bin sales on the students who live close to Machado House (mostly people on the Pembroke Campus) so that access is easy and the bins are actually used, not just left in people’s rooms. If this program is successful, SCRAP will buy another tumbler to be placed somewhere else on campus, and continue to buy them until they can meet student demands.

The tumblers are great, but once the compost is produced there is still the question of where it should go. At first Brown could use it to fertilize the plants on campus, but if the program gets big enough there might end up being too much. I think that once the school starts creating a significant amount of compost every year, they should set up a CSA of sorts with farmers in the area. Since there are so many farms around Brown and Providence that are always buying chemical fertilizer, I'm sure Brown could find some that want to switch to a more organic option. Farmers, every year, could request a certain amount of compost, pay a small fee for it (just enough to make the program economically viable), and then come pick it up periodically once it is done decomposing at school. This would not only reduce Brown's environmental footprint, but would cut down on the amount of chemicals used in many of the area's farms and save farmers money on fertilizer. With the tumblers SCRAP is planning on getting, this program would have to start really small, but it could easily grow with the composting movement at Brown and even with the one in Providence, once it gets going.

I think that this is just the kind of work that should happen at any school that wants to start a comprehensive composting program. Although it takes a long time, SCRAP’s main goal has got to be getting support from Brown’s student body. If they show their peers the benefits of composting, the students will wonder why the school isn't doing it already and demand that they start. Once students demand it, the administration will eventually find a way to make it work and a composting system will be created.

These ideas are all simply suggestions for Providence and Brown on what to look out for and how best to implement composting systems in their areas. Composting is clearly beneficial for everyone involved and is becoming much more popular. It is time for us to step up and work for the good of our fellow people and our earth, and composting is one way to do this.